SEBW Monthly December Edition
From IDOE
Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Wellness
Holiday Social-Emotional Wellness Tips!
The holidays can be a lot of fun, but they can also bring anxiety and stress. Students feel the pressure just as much as adults, and they often benefit from extra support and encouragement this time of year. Social-emotional learning can help students during the holidays and long winter months.
- Manage stress. Stress and anxiety often increase around the holidays. Plan extra activities that remind students of healthy ways to cope with holiday stress. Classroom activities: Working with Play Dough and Clay, My Calm Place
- Acknowledge feelings. The holidays can be tough — especially for students dealing with stressful family situations, who live in poverty, or have lost loved ones around this time. Taking the time to talk about students’ feelings helps them work through problems, can make them feel valued, and promotes healthy communication. Classroom activities: Feelings Check, Loud Or Quiet, How Does My Body Feel?
- Focus on relationship-building. For many students, the holidays are about visiting with friends and family. Personalities sometimes clash and create anxiety inducing group dynamics. Before the holidays, plan classroom activities that teach students to accept one another’s differences, practice conflict resolution, and increase cooperation. Classroom activities: Empathy Mapping, What Would You Do?
- Plan a class party. Celebrate!. You and your students deserve a reward after a busy fall semester. Throw a class party to thank students for their hard work and spread holiday cheer. Classroom activities: Clue Me In, Blurt, New From Old
Check out IDOE's Science of Happiness Course here.
Happy Holidays from the Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Wellness Team!
Self-Regulation with G Suite: Tools to Create Daily Check-Ins
With so much emphasis on self-regulation and understanding emotions in today's classrooms, it can be difficult to find a system that works best for you. Self-regulation involves understanding, managing, and acting or not acting upon one's emotions.
Having your students "check-in" and share how they are feeling is a great way of developing important socio-emotional learning skills. There are a variety of tools and strategies to use, but here is a quick way to use Google Forms to gauge the emotional temperature in your room.
IDOE and REL Midwest Webinar on Social-Emotional Learning
RTI vs. MTSS
From Jess Yoder
All three Project AWARE sites (Avon Community School Corporation, Perry Central Community School Corporation, Vigo County School Corporation) are building school staff capacity to detect and respond to mental health concerns by hosting the evidence-based Youth Mental Health First Aid training. NAMI Indiana is offering 30 training's for school personnel between now and 6/30/20. Schools can schedule a training by emailing youthMHFA@namiindiana.org or they can go to https://www.namiindiana.org/programs/training/youthmhfa for additional information.
School Social Workers
From Jeff Wittman
Advancing Adult Compassion Resilience: A Toolkit for Schools
Wisconsin has an online compassion resilience toolkit with various tools, discussions, activities, etc. for school leaders and general school staff. Some of the measurement-related resources that districts are using from the toolkit include:
· A self-compassion self-scoring scale from Dr. Neff (lesson 2)
· The Professional Quality of Life Assessment (lesson 3)
· The Secondary Traumatic Stress Informed Organization Assessment (STSI-OA) which is an online, organization-level assessment (lesson 3)
Youth Assistance Program (YAP) Pilot Expansion Funding Available
IDOE is pleased to announce a Youth Assistance Program (YAP) Pilot expansion funding opportunity for Indiana Schools. The YAP was created with the goal to decrease the number of youth entering the juvenile justice system to foster a more productive citizenry and reduce rates of violence and poverty in our community. This is a competitive grant for $75,000.00 due on February 1, 2020. For further information please locate funding opportunities here. Questions can be emailed to Prevention Specialist Jason Murrey, or via phone at 317-234-6792.
Chronic Absenteeism
Using Chronic Absence Data To Improve Conditions For Learning
Author: Attendance Works
Published: September 2019
Click here to read the full report.
Upcoming Events
Indiana Youth Institute Capacity Grant
Overview:
-Grants are intended to help schools achieve more equitable college and career readiness outcomes for all students
-A total of eight grants will be awarded to schools and they will be served through either cohort 1 (4 schools) or cohort 2 (4 schools)
-Each grant recipient will receive: Technical assistance consulting (approximately 100 hours), cohort support (as a member of a community of practice), and two IYI conference scholarships.
-Details can be found here
Process to Apply:
-Applications are submitted online, here
-All Indiana schools are eligible to apply
-Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis, yet those received by January 15, 2020 will receive priority consideration.
Archive
Lisa Truitt
State Attendance Officer
Email: LTruitt1@doe.in.gov
Website: www.doe.in.gov/sebw
Location: 115 West Washington Street, Indianapolis, IN, USA
Phone: 317-233-6016
Twitter: @LisaTruitt_SEL